The Johnson Level we had for review was 48″ long.

If you need a level for your next job or if you just like tools and people are asking you what you want for Christmas, tell them you want the Johnson Heavy-Duty Aluminum Box Level with Glow View.  Its a very nice level.  I had about 4 levels before Johnson sent this one over for review.  This one is now my favorite.  I have a few levels that are almost impossible to read because so much dust has gotten into the vial area that you can hardly see the bubble.  I’ll let you know how this level does after a year or two but the way it is designed I don’t think this will be an issue.

It is missing one nice feature, it does not have a magnetic edge.  I have a level with a magnetic edge and I have to say as much as I like having it there, I don’t think I have ever really used it.  So I guess Im not too upset that this level does not have a magnetic edge.

The Johnson Box Level does have a very large rubber bumper on each end to absorb shock in a long drop or fall off a roof.

The Johnson level is very light weight and it feels good in my hand.  I’ve not yet put it to a punishing test but so far I really like it.

I do have to point out that the first one they sent me arrived damaged from UPS, looks like a heavy box fell on it and bent it.  They had a new one out to me in just a few days. Great customer service!

Photo from dustdeputy.com

The Dust Deputy comes in 3 different configurations.  You can get just the cyclone for $59.00 or the Deluxe Kit (the one we have to test) or the Ultimate kit that comes with an extra large 9 gallon container.

We received the Dust Deputy Cyclone Deluxe Kit and were excited to try it out.  The Dust Deputy is supposed to keep the dust out of your shop vac and therefore keep the filter from getting clogged.

I recently had a lot of drywall to do and did NOT have the Dust Deputy.  I wish I did.  When sanding drywall the filter in my Rigid shop vac would get clogged in just a few minutes.  This meant that I had to empty the shopvac, remove the filter, and blow it out with compressed air, creating a massive dust cloud, and I had to do this dozens of times.

Since getting the Dust Deputy I had a small drywall sanding job to do and the results were astounding.  ALL the drywall dust stayed in the Dust Deputy bucket.  I could not find any dust in my shop vac.

My next project with the Dust Deputy will be to clean the ash from the bottom of our fireplace, I have tried this before with my shop vac and it is virtually impossible.  This stuff would literally clog the shop vac filter in 10 to 20 seconds.   This will come soon.

We will be reviewing and doing a product demo on 3 Fiiber Cement Siding Gauges (hangers). These tools are designed to give you proper spacing when installing siding such as HardiPlank Fiber Cement Siding.
They also make it possible for to instal this type of siding alone. Typically you would need 2 people to position each piece of siding but with these hangers holding the piece in place you can now do it alone.

I can not say enough positive about this tool. It is built to last. It has a 100% professional feel in your hand. It is heavy duty and will last and last.

Lets start with the fact that I knew nothing about Hardi Plank Siding or fiber cement shears. The fisrt few cust I made were with the finished side of the siding up. That gave a bit of a rough edge. Then I decided to try it with the siding flipped over with the face toward the ground. 100% improvement. The cut is sharp and the edge is tight. As you see in the pics above, I decided to better my chances of getting a straight edge by using an aluminum speed square as a guide while i cut with the siding shears. This helps a lot.

I have nothing negative to say about this tool at all. The only issue I have while using it is that the kerf that it cuts sometimes gets stuck in the tip and has to be poked out with a pencil or something along those lines.

For more information on the PacTool Snapper Shear, please visithttp://www.pactool.us/

The Snapper Shear  Fiber Cement sideing shears

I recently sided a small shed with Hardie Plank siding as a test before I decided to use it on our home after a major addition project. On the shed project I had very little experience with Fiber cement siding and didn’t have the right tools. I had no hanging gauges to help me get the spacing right so I made some simple jigs from wood. I also did not have the proper tool to cut the hardiplank siding. I simply used a dewalt chop saw with a wood cutting blade. After just a few cuts the blade was fried and so was I from all the dust and noise.

With that project behind me I was ready to proceed with the full house siding project and we chose James Hardie Fiber Cement siding with Color Plus Technology. (which means its pre painted.) This time I was equipped with the Snapper Shear SS404 from PacTool International. This is a very simple tool that nibbles its way through the siding to give you a decent edge and hardly any noise or dust in the air.

I can not say enough positive about this tool. It is built to last. It has a 100% professional feel in your hand. It is heavy duty and will last and last.

Lets start with the fact that I knew nothing about Hardi Plank Siding or fiber cement shears. The fisrt few cust I made were with the finished side of the siding up. That gave a bit of a rough edge. Then I decided to try it with the siding flipped over with the face toward the ground. 100% improvement. The cut is sharp and the edge is tight. As you see in the pics above, I decided to better my chances of getting a straight edge by using an aluminum speed square as a guide while i cut with the siding shears. This helps a lot.

I have nothing negative to say about this tool at all. The only issue I have while using it is that the kerf that it cuts sometimes gets stuck in the tip and has to be poked out with a pencil or something along those lines.

For more information on the PacTool Snapper Shear, please visit http://www.pactool.us/

The Wood Duster is a new product from Style Vac. I have known about the style vac for a while now but never thought about it for a wood dust application.

Let me say this, I have used everything from large multi bag dust collection systems to exterior mounted cyclone systems, to a shop vac and a hose so I have some knowlede of how they compare. This is not meant to replace a large dust collection system in a commercial shop. But I will say this, its pretty handy and I do enjoy using it when doing small projects around my home shop.

As it comes out of the box the Wood Duster is set up to be a vac that lets you sweep your wood shavings and floor dust directly into its opening and its gone as simple as that.  As far as that is concerned it works perfectly. Its not quite strong enough to suck up heavy nails and chunks of wood but for wood dust and shavings it works perfectly.

It also comes with a very long 25′ hose that attaches in place of the front sweeping panel.  This is the one place the Wood Duster could use some improvement.  It would be much more useful if I did not have to tip the unit on its site to get that panel off to plug in the hose.  There really needs to be a secondary door on the front of the panel that lets you push the hose right through the panel and there fore bypass it with out having to remove the panel.
But even with that said its still a very useful tool.

I was recently installing a few hundred feet of crown molding. I don’t know about you but when I do crown molding I make lots of cuts.  I had the wood duster hose attached to my dewalt 12″ chop saw and every time i had to make a cut I would simply step on the super handy foot switch, make my cut then tap the switch again to turn it off.  So much better than bending down and looking for the switch to my Rigid shop vac.

The Wood Duster is also quite a bit quieter than my Rigid Shop Vac.

A few other nice features:

The foot operated lid that exposes a simple garbage can.
The easily removable vacuum bag. (although its a bit small)
The good suction

Overall I do enjoy using the Wood Duster Vac.  I’ll keep using it and update this review after a few months of use to see how it holds up.

The wood Duster is available at http://www.stylevac.com/forthewoodshop.aspx

Osborne  EB-3 Miter Guide

WOW.  I have many hours experience using several SCMI sliding table saws over the years, from small Mini Max saws to big 12′ sliding tables.  In both cases one of the best features is the Crosscut fence.  With the Osborne Miter Guide I feel like I have turned my little Bosh Contractor saw into a Big Shop saw.

Most table saws come with a simple miter guide that most of you are familiar with, the type where you twist the handle to loosen and adjust the protractor then twist the handle again to tighten it down.  These work fine for most small pieces of wood being cut but once you get a larger piece of wood or plywood you will notice that no matter how hard you hold your work to the guide, you get some flexing when pushing the work through the blade.

The Osborne EB-3 Miter Guide is a completely different design, on first glance I thought it was going to be too complex to use all the time and that it would be a “special use tool” for me.  But once I got it assembled (which took about 3 minutes) I could see how simple it really was and that I would want to use it for every crosscut.

The EB-3 works on a Triangle shape rather than a single center point like a standard miter guide. So the fence does not twist or flex when you have a larger piece of wood to cut.

The fence is fully adjustable so you can set it up to be very close to the blade (1/8″) or an inch or two away if you prefer.  The fence also extends from 24 inches to 42inches long.  When I fully extended the fence, I did notice a tiny bit of  flex in the extension but in actual cutting with the fence extended it was not an issue.  The extended portion of the fence is just there to guide and steady an exceptionally long piece.  99% of the pressure is still applied to the main fence.  I did not feel any flex while cutting even with the fence almost completely extended.

The EB-3 comes with a T slot washer attached to the bottom of the guide bar, my Bosh Saw does not have a T slot so I simply removed it with the provided allen wrench.

My favorite feature of the EB-3 is the flip stop.  I am used to the HUGE flip stops on the SCMI Sliding table saws.  These are much smaller but still very useful and well designed.  If you don’t do any weird angle cuts ever, the fence and flip stops alone are worth the price of this Miter Guide.

Osborne provides a sticky back abrasive tape to apply to the fence for added stability and slip reduction. I wanted to use it for a bit without it so I have not applied that yet.  Same goes for the tape measure.  The tape measure is just there to be helpful, you have to remember that since the entire fence is adjustable the tape measure will be inaccurate if you move the fence closer or further from the blade.  I always use the Stanley tape measure clipped to my belt for every cut. I could never get used to trusting a tape that was applied to a machine.  I will probably try these out on my next project and update this review at that point.

The adjustment arm or triangulation arm is a great design.  It is a 2 piece arm, one piece slides inside the other with a lock screw to adjust the angle of cut. There are presets for all the most common angles and you can easily make fast changes with this design. (it also offers a fine adjustment for calibrating the guide to your saw. The one I am using was perfectly accurate so I have not needed to adjust that.)

I will continue to update this review with more pics and information as I get more comfortable with this tool but I can confidently say that I don’t know any woodworker that would not be very happy to own an Osborne EB-3.  It helps them work faster, safer and more accurately.  It is without question worth the cost.

http://www.osbornemfg.com/

Ryobi 18v Lithium Cordless Circular Saw

I have not had a lot of time with this saw yet but I am sure it will become one of my most used tools.  I never looked at cordless saws as “real tools” because I like the power of an AC motor.  Therefore I never bothered to try one.  I can say now that I have tried it, I wish I had done so long ago.  This little saw has plenty of power for most jobs.  I have yet to see how the battery will hold up on big jobs, I suspect that it wont last very long.  (I will test that and give you some real info on what to expect. )

The thing I like the best so far with this cordless circular saw is that it is pretty quiet, compared to my Hitachi Corded Saw.  Also the chips don’t come flying at my face at 100MPH like on my Hitachi Corded Saw.  The other obvious benefit is weight and size.   If you just have a few cuts to make but they are up on a ladder or hanging over a roof, then you will love not having to deal with the extension cords and the arm bending weight of a big corded saw. More pics of this saw in use or on the way.

The Ryobi 18v Lithium Reciprocating Saw was part of the Compact Combo Kit.  The saw feels very nice in your hands, it fits well.   The quick change blade is very nice, no messing around.

I have only used this a few times so far once was to cut off the end of the main ridge beam on a recent addition project and the other was to cut up some 12′ long pallets that were under 300 pcs of Hardi Plank Siding. The Ryobi did a great job.  After cutting up about 1/2 of the pallet I dedided to speed up the process and use the Ryobi Cordless Circular saw instead.  But the Cordless Recip saw did a very nice job.  More reviews to come.